Spider-Mancan fly now! More or less, anyway. Peter Parker and Miles Morales have fitted a pair of web wings to their suits that allow them to glide through the air and take advantage of Manhattan’s unpredictable winds to soar across the city. It’s exhilarating in practice, and has become one of my primary means of navigation only a few hours into the game. But they do feel a smidge overpowered at times, diluting the fantasy of swinging across the city or trying to crawl on walls like the arachnid superheroes are supposed to. It feels a lot like cheating.
Web wings have been a part of Spider-Man’s arsenal for decades in the comics and across other adaptations, but in a game where much of the joy comes from youfeelinglike your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, having an easy way to fly through the world tears some of that away. I’m no longer sprinting up buildings to gain the height necessary to swing for minutes on end, knowing I can press a button and override that tedium in a matter of seconds. I miss having to make the effort, and how it made me learn the ins and outs of becoming Spider-Man in my own way.
Web wings are gained in the opening battle against Sandman, with Peter fearing the technology isn’t ready for public use, despite it just being a few pieces of fabric tucked under his armpits. Either way, when our heroes are blown halfway across the city in a storm of sand and wind, the web wings allow them to soar across the Manhattan river within mere seconds. Insomniac uses it as both a way to introduce the mechanic and showcase how its open world has grown compared to the last game.
You can glimpse down at the bridge that awaits below and sections of the city that previously were little more than set dressing. It’s a stellar moment of magnificent scale, and works beautifully in the confines of a set piece, but the web wings being used in the open world still make me feel like a dirty little cheater. I’m constantly discouraged from pulling off tricks or swinging through buildings when an easier alternative exists and there is no penalty for its usage. Maybe I’m just a big ol’ fun sponge.
The web wings would have worked better with a generous cooldown, or a greater incentive to mix them together with swinging and tricks that didn’t make far better use of one over the other. Since, right now at least, I’m always reaching a certain height where not using wings would be foolish, or at least mean reaching my destination would take long enough that I may as well fast travel.
Reward me for making clever use of the web wings instead of lazily relying on them, because it isn’t like Spider-Man 2 is any stranger to chaining together loads of combos and cool downs to benefit the player. I play a game like this because I want to stick to walls and swing between the skyscrapers, but the web wings often make that feel like an afterthought.
